KitchenAid apologizes for offensive debate tweet

The Hill and other news outlets report that an employee with the company tweeted about President Barack Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, during the debate. Obama mentioned that she had died in 2008 before he took office.

The tweet went:

@KitchenAidUSA: “Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president”.”??? Wow!” #nbcpolitics

The Huffington Post reports that KitchenAid’s marketing chief, Cynthia Soledad, quickly tweeted an apolgy to Obama, followed by another that read: “It was carelessly sent in error by a member of our Twitter team who, needless to say, won’t be tweeting for us anymore.”

Soledad told CNN:

“During the debate tonight, a member of our Twitter team mistakenly posted an offensive tweet from the KitchenAid handle instead of a personal handle. The tasteless joke in no way represents our values at KitchenAid, and that person won’t be tweeting for us anymore.”

“I am deeply sorry to President Obama, his family, and the Twitter community for this careless error.”